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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Hi:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Here is the Presidential Report from 1925. President Lute Wilcox recorded this for the December 1925 meeting. 2021 has been a tough year for the Federation on several levels, but lots of good has happened too. President Wilcox saw tough times that year, but wanted everyone to look to the future in hopes that the organization would be around for years to come. Well, President Wilcox, here we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Enjoy the report of almost 100 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Peggy Chong<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR 1925<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> With the close of our fiscal year on November 30<sup>th</sup> we have to report conditions for the blind of Colorado not altogether so unfavorable as was anticipated earlier in the period. The secretary-treasurer’s tabulation shows our financial condition was quite as favorably returned as could have been expected during the prevalence of such strenuous times in the business world. Those of us who live so closely within the lives of the blind, and who comprehend the distressing circumstances under which they are struggling, have come to realize that we must accepts things much as they are and trim our sails accordingly. We must strive to put up with many disappointments over which we have no control.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> We have to report with much regret in the face of a hard winter that our stock of ready-made clothing is about exhausted and it will require a good deal of hustling on the part of all members to replace our departed possessions. We are planning on several schemes to replenish our depleted wardrobes despite the urgent efforts of rival charitable organization better equipped than ourselves to grab everything in sight. Some of the churches have taken on such a chill that they are gathering up pretty much all the spare purple and fine linen with which to put on rummage sales, which are held almost daily in some part of the city, and the race is so fierce between them, the Salvation Army and the Good Will that the blind have but little look-in on the stuff we need the most.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> This should serve as a stimulant to our disengaged members to get out and hustle earnestly among the neighbors who might have clothing to give and I am offering this as a constructive suggestion. Thoreau has said, as quoted by Dortor Fisher, that “the best I can do for my friend is to be his friend” and Oliver Goldsmith went even further in the expression of humanitarian philanthropy by peeling off his elegant fur overcoat one stormy night and giving it to a beggar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> We entered upon the past winter with the incubus of an unfriendly legislature. Its unholy proposal to pass adverse legislation was apparent from the first, and thus was killed our good old Benefit law, initiated by this Association and voted so generously by the people, was thus killed. Out of a half dozen disreputable calculated to injure us, our despotic Governor ordered the worst one printed and passed during the closing days of the legislature and we are now up against the most obnoxious enactment ever put out in any state of this glorious republic. At this time the new Colorado Blind Commission has accomplished so little that no one can say that the ultimate outcome will be. All we can do is to watch and wait. The principle grief lies in the fact that the appropriation is not half sufficient to make the patch as large as the sore and the Blind Commission now realizes the terror of the situation. Many beneficiaries are bound to be reduced or cut off entirely as a matter of painful necessity and there is no help in us. Still we are not snowed under yet and if this Association stands true to its colors and remains steadfast to its principles we may yet get out of the woods. Plans are incubating to be hatched at the right time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> Whatever happens, this Association will still be on the map and we are asking only that our members stand pat and ratify confidence in us to do the best thing possible for the good of the cause. We must press onward and upwards and keep our powder dry, as Davy Crockett expressed it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> If we can get the co-operation we are going to carry on and the United Workers For the Blind of Colorado is not going out of business, whatever happens.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>